The nexus between traditional foraging and its sustainability : a qualitative assessment among a few selected Eurasian case studies
Aziz, Muhammad Abdul (Università Ca' Foscari Venezia. Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Informatica e Statistica (Venècia, Itàlia))
Mattalia, Giulia (Università Ca' Foscari Venezia. Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Informatica e Statistica (Venècia, Itàlia))
Sulaiman, Naji (Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. Department of Crop Sciences and Agroforestry)
Shah, Adnan Ali (University of Peshawar. Department of Botany)
Polesny, Zbynek (Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. Department of Crop Sciences and Agroforestry)
Kalle, Raivo (University of Gastronomic Sciences (Pollenzo, Itàlia))
Sõukand, Renata (Università Ca' Foscari Venezia. Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Informatica e Statistica (Venècia, Itàlia))
Pieroni, Andrea (Università degli Studi di Scienze Gastronomiche (Pollenzo, Itàlia))

Fecha:	2024
Descripción:	26 pàg.
Resumen:	Plant foraging is an important human ecological phenomenon being studied by a number of contemporary ethnobiologists as well as by a few social anthropologists among rural communities and, more recently, in urban environments. The sustainability dimension of foraging is, however, largely unexplored. We analyse a few case studies from recent field research and qualitatively assess both the environmental and social sustainability of diverse patterns of traditional foraging practices in three distinct human ecological environments (horticulturalism-, forestry-, and pastoralism-driven) located in the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, and North Pakistan, i. e. we address the question of when does traditional foraging become unsustainable and what factors may influence this. The main findings are multidimensional. First, in all case studies, we sometimes observed competitive foraging among the gatherers of certain wild food plants potentially causing ecological degradation; such unsustainable practices seem to be linked to the market pressure on certain species. However, also customs and norms promoted by states can be detrimental (former Soviet Union), as well as climate change (Eastern Europe), and marginalisation of some minority groups (Pakistan). Second, in the Mediterranean Syrian context, wild food plant resources are largely represented by widely available weedy "wild" vegetables, normally (but not exclusively) collected by women, and usually easily accessible; only very few wild food plants seem to be threatened due to specific market demands or to disequilibria created by household economic instabilities due to the recent war. We also argue that unsustainable foraging is enhanced by the abandonment of daily practices and continuous interaction with the natural environment and by the increasingly uneven distribution of active practical knowledge on wild food plants among the middle-aged and younger population. Facilitating the transmission of sustainable foraging knowledge and practices could be therefore crucial, also for coping with food insecurity in times of crisis; but for that to occur, holistic environmental and food educational frameworks, appropriate policies for fostering community-based biodiversity conservation and also social cohesion and communal management of lands should be seriously considered as well. Moreover, future gastronomic and eco-tourism initiatives, if organised in a thoughtful manner, could represent a positive turning point not only for the local small-scale economies of the considered rural communities but also for helping them to dynamically preserve the entire socio-ecological system underpinned in plant foraging and ultimately to better adapt to the current global crisis.
Ayudas:	European Commission 714874
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Lengua:	Anglès
Documento:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Materia:	Ethnobotany ; Social cohesion ; Sustainability ; Traditional ecological knowledge ; Wild food plants ; SDG 2 - Zero Hunger ; SDG 5 - Gender Equality ; SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth ; SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities ; SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production ; SDG 13 - Climate Action ; SDG 15 - Life on Land ; SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals
Publicado en:	Environment, development and sustainability, Vol. 26, issue 12 (December 2024) , p. 29813-29838, ISSN 1573-2975

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-022-02568-0
PMID: 35915718

Postprint 29 p, 528.3 KB

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